Pregnancy is an emotional enough experience for any woman, let alone one who is expecting quadruplets. When first-time Mum, Bethani Webb, learned that she had not one, but four babies inside her, the joy, fear, and excitement that she had felt prior to this was multiplied by four. This wouldn’t be the only surprise for Bethani either. When the doctors took a closer look at the babies, they would discover something even more shocking.
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Tim and Bethani Webb are a couple from Northern Alberta, Canada. Their love story began like many others. They got married in their early twenties and it wasn’t long before they decided to start thinking about having children.
Some Unexpected News
It wasn’t long before Bethani took a test and discovered that she was, in fact, pregnant. They had initially planned to wait at least 12 months before having their first child, but, as the saying goes, life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans. The couple were, nevertheless, very excited at the prospect of starting a family together.
Facebook/Bethani Esther Irene Webb
A couple of days before Christmas in 2015, the couple attended a routine scan. This was when the nurse informed them of some unexpected, but incredible news. It was the last thing they expected to hear.
All Is Revealed
The first clue came when the nurse asked if the couple knew of any instances of multiple births in either of their families, to which they answered no. The couple were slightly confused, but then the nurse drew their attention to the picture on the screen.
Facebook/Bethani Esther Irene Webb
Bethani recalled what had happened to Canada’s Global News: “She turns around to the screen and she says ‘There’s one baby, there’s two, there’s three and there’s four…'” “That’s when I just about fell over!” Tim added.
Gender Reveal
The couple’s families couldn’t quite believe it when they heard the news. They were just as stunned as Tim and Bethani. It’s no wonder they were so shocked, considering the fact that this is such a rare occurrence. According to Dr. James Bofill of the University of Mississippi, the chance of anyone conceiving quadruplets without the aid of fertility treatment is roughly one in 729,000!
Facebook/Bethani Esther Irene Webb
Fortunately, there were no complications throughout Bethani’s pregnancy. They decided to find out the babies’ genders in advance, since four was far too many not to prepare for. To Tim’s horror, he discovered that he was going to be completely outnumbered. All four were girls! Just a month after finding this out, Bethani headed to the hospital, the time had come to meet these four bundles of joy.
A Miracle
Since Bethani was having quadruplets, doctors had advised she have a cesarean section at 33 weeks. The operation went smoothly and soon Bethani and Tim were parents to four adorable and healthy babies. As each baby arrived and were lined up next to each other, everyone was in disbelief at what they noticed.
Facebook/Webb Quadruplets Updates
The odds that the couple should have had quadruplets were slim enough, let alone the odds of having identical quadruplets, which is what they discovered when the babies came out. This was something of a miracle, since there is a chance of one in over 15 million of this actually happening.
Magical
Tim told Global News, “It was kind of like a magic show, because they’re pulling out one, two, three, four… it was kind of surreal.” Once this “magic show” had come to an end, it was time to name the girls. They decided that they would be called Emily, Grace, McKayla and Abigail.
Facebook/Bethani Esther Irene Webb
Shortly afterwards, Tim spoke to the Edmonton Journal: “I feel overwhelmingly awesome that the babies are here. I feel blessed. Relieved, too, because you worry with multiple births. There’s risks… but all of it was perfect.”
Naming The Girls
While there are, undoubtedly, some negatives that come with having this many babies all at once, such as more limited sleep and a lot of diapers, there is a definite advantage in terms of choosing names. “It was that we didn’t have to pick our favourites,” Bethani told Global News. “We could pick four we liked, we didn’t have to choose just one.”
Facebook/Bethani Esther Irene Webb
The names proved a lot easier than telling the girls apart. This was made a lot easier, initially, because each baby girl was placed in her own tiny incubator. This made it easier to differentiate one quadruplet from the next.
Different Personalities
When the babies came out of their individual incubators, it was much more of a challenge to tell them apart. Speaking to CTV News, Bethani revealed: “Right now, I’m glad they’re separated so we can tell them apart. But even just holding two side by side, I can’t tell them apart at all.”
Facebook/Bethani Esther Irene Webb
Bethani also explained to CTV News that each one of their personalities was very different. This would, in time, help them massively in being able to tell them apart. She described Emily and McKayla as chilled out, and Abigail – the smallest of the four, despite being the eldest, as feisty. Grace, meanwhile is “kind of a character.”
Colour Coordination
The couple do have a plan of action in place to help them to differentiate between each girl, now that they’re out of their incubators. Bethani and Tim decided to assign a colour to each baby and dress them in hair accessories and bracelets. They’ve even considered painting their toenails in different colours to better tell them apart.
Facebook/Bethani Esther Irene Webb
Since having four kids is such a handful, especially considering the fact that the couple are first-time parents, they have moved in with Tim’s Mum so that they have some extra help. In fact, they also have the population of Hythe, Alberta (820 people) behind them.
Up For The Challenge
As Tim told the National Post, “The community held a fundraiser which brought in approximately $50,000, and there’s a GoFundMe [site] set up by friends.” The couple have received so many gifts from the community that they have had to store some of them at the local church.
Facebook/Bethani Esther Irene Webb
Raising quadruplets would be a daunting prospect for both, but the Webbs are more than willing to take it on. Proud dad Tim told Global News, “I’m looking forward to the memories and how close they’ll all be.” Meanwhile, Bethani concluded: “It’s going to be crazy the first few years… [But] it’ll be very exciting.”
Searching For Answers
As previously mentioned, the fact that these babies share the same DNA is extremely rare. What do the genes look like in non-identical quadruplets though? One mother of quadruplets from San Francisco was keen to find out. They decided to take the ancestry test to see if their questions could be answered. They were shocked at what they discovered.
Facebook/Bethani Esther Irene Webb
In 2017, a family’s heritage no longer has to be a mystery. These days, thanks to significant advances in technology, scientists can test your DNA for just a small fee. All you have to do is send in a sample of your saliva.
DNA Test
After one San Francisco Mum had found out some interesting information about her roots, a DNA test led her to conduct an experiment of her own. She wanted to see if these DNA testing kits would really work. She put this to the test using her quadruplets.
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It all started when Amy Jones decided that it “might be kind of fun” to find out more about the origins of her family. She decided to give Ancestry DNA a try. Users of this site have to create an online account, send in a test tube full of saliva to be analysed and then they will receive their genetic information electronically.
Irish Heritage
The results she received came as a shock to her. “I called my mother, I called my father, and i said ‘Listen, we’re Irish!” she recalled. “And they said, ‘Are we really?’ And I said, ‘That’s what it says. So, I’m assuming that’s right.”
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However, even with the results in front of her, Jones wasn’t convinced that the genetic testing was entirely accurate. She decided to confirm these DNA results with the help of her four children, who were also quadruplets.
Jones Quad Squad
Jones’ children are two sets of twins who were born at the same time: Gabe and Seth are identical twins, while Hugh and Katie are fraternal. They refer to themselves as the “Jones Quad Squad.” They provided the four sets of shared DNA needed to help confirm the accuracy of two sites: Ancestry DNA and 23andMe.
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In order to ensure that the experiment was as blind as possible, Jones worked with the San Francisco news outlet, KPIX 5. They sent in the children’s DNA samples with different names and ethnicities attached. She even went as far as to send them from different cities in order to hide the fact that the samples were from people who were related.
Results
When the Jones family received their results, they were surprised by the variety of information they got back. This wasn’t linked to the identical twin tests. Those came back almost exactly the same as the last time, 71 percent northwestern European and almost 7 percent British and Irish.
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It turned out that her children were considered to be even more Irish than she was. This was the result that had led Jones to question her own test in the first place. “They were even higher than I was, that really surprised me,” she said.
Surprising Results
Katie, who is the fraternal twin to Hugh, had some surprising results. She had a much higher British and Irish ancestry line than any of her brothers. While this suggests that the rest of the results were inaccurate after all, DNA told KPIX 5 that this was actually very normally, especially for fraternal twins.
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Dr. Ballard said: “You would expect there to be differences, and I would have been very surprised if this had come back without any.” She explained that fraternal twins tend to have more differences genetically than identical twins do. This is because one might take more of their DNA from a particular parent.
Reliable Results
Receiving these results meant that Jones could put her mind at ease about her own DNA results, which she had previously questioned. “It makes me feel a little bit more certain about the test results,” she said.
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Dr. Ballard agreed with Jones, having told KPIX 5 that DNA testing sites such as Ancestry DNA and 23andMe tend to provide accurate breakdowns of a person’s ethnic background. Furthermore, the DNA expert said that the more samples are collected, the more accurate the DNA results will become, since the geneticists will have access to more information.
DNA Matching
These results confirmed to Jones that she was, in fact Irish. She also found out some interesting things about genetics tests in general. She learnt that Ancestry DNA links users with other potential family members that they might have, provided that they had also given their details to the site.
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Jones’ children ended up being linked to each other, despite the fact that they had registered with fake names and addresses. Ancestry DNA also informed them that Jones was their mother. This is a special feature known as the DNA Match feature. However, the site didn’t actually ask for permission to link the Joneses with other potential relatives.
Shared Information
“That concerns me,” Jones told KPIX 5 after she had seen that information on her profile. She then went on to explain that her genetic breakdown was all that she had requested. She hadn’t expected her information to be linked with other customers from Ancestry DNA.
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This didn’t end up being a big deal for Jones though, since the DNA had come from her own children. Dr. Ballard warned that other users should tread carefully when using this service and be ready for anything.
Extra Information
Dr. Ballard drew attention to the fact that the matching feature made it possible to re-connect sperm and egg donors with their biological children, even if they didn’t request that. It’s possible that users might discover that they are adopted if their DNA doesn’t match that of their parents. “It can show non-paternity and other issues in your family,” she explained.
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Following an inquiry made by KPIX 5, Ancestry DNA re-evaluated the way they did things and concluded that they would make the DNA Match feature an optional part of the genetic testing process. Even with this in place, Dr. Bollard still emphasised the importance of being absolutely sure of what you’re signing up to before committing.
Exercising Caution
“I do caution people to look at those privacy settings and decide how much information they want to give,” Ballard warned. As long as it is used in the correct way, the site can be very useful in discovering where your roots lie.
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This is something that can be applied to the internet as a whole. We have to be very careful that we know exactly how much of our data we are giving away and what is being done with it. It always pays to check this before consenting to things.